Summer is almost upon us. The gardens are looking better and better and crops, especially when there has been a little rain, look really well against the dark background.

Somehow, at this time of year, the countryside looks bigger. I think it is the effect of the huge amounts of vegetation that nature is capable of producing, in a very short time. That is certainly true of the lawn as well as the hemlock in the grass verges.

We never even mention the word nitrogen when we are anywhere near the lawn, never mind using any, for fear of encouraging growth. Still the grass continues to grow at a huge rate.

I can understand why people want decking. It is fashionable. It seems to be promoted by the garden makeover programmes and it does not need mowing. It is also mercifully free of molehills, which are the scourge of our sandy garden.

The real joy of the garden and surrounding trees is the number of birds we seem to have accumulated. We have nothing especially unusual so far as species are concerned, although we do get a woodpecker on the bird table from time to time.

The pleasure comes from the number of birds we have around, and the number of nests of which we are aware. There must be a lot of nests of which we are unaware, or so we hope.

A particularly idle breed of cat lives here or else particularly wise birds. The offerings brought to the house by the cats almost always have four legs, rather than two. Long may it continue. We can do without the four legged quarry, but would prefer to keep the two legged one.

There is quite a lot of anecdotal evidence of plentiful bird life. There is evidence, locally, of owl boxes with residents. One farmer friend, who had been checking his crops, reported that he had been nearly deafened by skylarks.

No doubt he was exaggerating but it was nice to hear of good populations on a straightforward commercial farm.

The dawn chorus is a great pleasure at present. The countryside sounds - the natural ones rather than the man-made ones - are one of the major joys of rural living.

We live in an age when man-made noise, of all sorts, seems inescapable. Too much of it is traffic noise. People, however, also seem to feel a need to make a noise at every opportunity.

It now seems impossible to just sit and watch a sports game in silence or even in quiet. Noise is the norm, and silence is the exception. It should be the other way round.

I have always believed that cricket should be watched in silence, apart from a little quiet chat. It seems a forlorn hope now. Something remarkable should be appreciated, otherwise peace should reign.

It is a pity that our political leaders cannot bring themselves to adopt a similarly self-effacing posture. We hear far too much about them.

I recall a story about Baldwin, Prime Minister between the wars. He was travelling on a train well into his second term as Prime Minister, when he became aware that he was being studied by the man in the seat opposite.

The man addressed him. "Aren't you Baldwin?" He was able to confirm that he was. So the man followed up with "Weren't you at Harrow in '98?", which he was also able to confirm.

Having recognised a school friend, the man continued with "What are you doing now?". Would that the politicians of today were similarly invisible.

Updated: 10:49 Tuesday, May 21, 2002